This paper begins with a brief historical overview that provides a context for understanding approaches
to story reading in U.S. preschools. It also discusses factors that have prompted a new trend in story
reading, one emphasizing story comprehension directly, not as a vehicle for developing only oral
vocabulary and print-related literacy skills. This backdrop, as well as discussions of new research and
achievement difficulties in school-age children, sets the stage for the author’s suggestion that
preschoolers’ social-emotional understanding would also likely benefit, if story reading goals and
strategies were changed to focus on higher-level story comprehension. Examples of suitable storybooks
and comprehension support strategies are used to illustrate how the complementary goals of supporting
story comprehension and social-emotional learning might be addressed. These examples also suggest a
research intervention needed to determine whether story comprehension support strategies can also
benefit social-emotional understanding.